George Stephenson "Onkus" Wallace (4 June 1895 – 19 October 1960), was an Australian comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio personality.
Wallace was a small tubby man with goggle eyes, a mobile face and croaky voice who appeared in trademark baggy trousers, checkered shirt and felt hat.
He later busked in Pyrmont, New South Wales waterfront, worked in his stepfather's ink factory, and was a farm-hand and canecutter in North Queensland.
[1] In the 1919 he formed a double act with Jack 'Dinks' Patterson as "Dinks and Onkus" (The Two Drunks), created in the style of Stiffy and Mo[3] The pair danced and sang, and for someone who looked like a wharfie (with his barrel chest and short legs) Wallace was surprisingly acrobatic and light on his feet, and the public loved him for his slapstick style and everyman appeal.
He wrote all of his own scripts and in 1942 penned a song that was to become a World War II standard, "A Brown Slouch Hat with The Side Turned Up".
He developed the concepts for His Royal Highness, Harmony Row and A Ticket in Tatts by drawing on his stage revues, and co-wrote Let George Do It and Gone to the Dogs.
[8] In later years, he was seen in supporting roles in two dramatic films, The Rats of Tobruk (Charles Chauvel, 1944, Australia) and Wherever She Goes (Michael Gordon, 1953, USA/Australia).
[9] As the most sustained series of Australian comedian comedies[10] produced before World War II,[11] these films provide some support for the claim that George Wallace is Australia's equivalent of Charles Chaplin.
For instance, his clothing and speech allude to an Australian working-class type and contrast with Charles Chaplin's mock-dapper Tramp persona.
[15] George Wallace's transition from stage to screen parallels the career progressions of many internationally famous vaudeville performers in a period when movies' popularity was eclipsing live theatre.
George Wallace Jnr's television show, Theatre Royal, which originated in Brisbane, won six Logie Awards from 1962 to 1967.